Chapter 4: I Hope Her Wonderful Dream Comes True

While lying on the bed in the guest room, I controlled a knight doll and used it to deliver dinner to Garnet inside my subspace. With a knight watching me, I obviously couldn’t enter the subspace myself.

Garnet was still frowning seriously as she stared down at a book.

She worked hard.

Only one thing concerned me: she’d recently stopped her skill training. She was free to do that if she wished, but somehow, it didn’t seem like Garnet.

What had happened?

“Thank you for your hard work, Garnet. How are things?”

“Leading Candidate. Th-thank you very much. You’ve allowed me to read so many books from the Library… and they’ve made me realize how much knowledge I lack. I need to study more.”

“I see. Are there any books you want? I generally duplicate anything and everything, but if there’s a field you want to study, I’ll actively obtain more books on it. You see, the information I collect is fundamentally biased toward achieving a slow life on the frontier.”

When I asked the question casually, she tightly gripped the ornament at her chest—the green-garnet pendant.

“Th-then, may I ask for books related to medical alchemy?”

“Mm, understood. Medicine… I’ll look for some.”

I placed the tray of food at the edge of the desk.

“—Your poor eyesight is caused by that pendant, isn’t it, Garnet? Is there a reason for it?”

It wasn’t something I should interrogate her about in minute detail.

Even so, I was slightly curious.

When I observed her with Mana Detection, I could see the mana flowing out of Garnet’s body strike the pendant, rebound, and return to her. It appeared to affect her optic nerves somehow.

Deliberately worsening her eyesight with magic so that she needed glasses…

Something about that felt strange.

Garnet looked troubled for a moment before slowly beginning to speak.

“Leading Candidate… What would you do if you lost your sight?”

“Hmm? I don’t understand where this is going.”

When I heard Garnet begin, I made the knight doll sit in a chair. She rarely spoke about herself.

This was a moment when I should listen carefully.

“If… you suddenly lost your hearing, or your sense of smell, taste, or touch… If your bodily senses abruptly vanished, how would you feel? Would you respond calmly as you always do? Or would even you be confused, Leading Candidate?”

Garnet’s tone wasn’t especially different from usual.

So why did her voice sound as though she might burst into tears at any moment?

“Is that your magic?”

“Yes. Sensory Deprivation—magic that takes away one of another person’s bodily senses. Although the effect is only temporary.”

As she explained it, Garnet didn’t appear to think well of her own magic.

I see. In other words, to keep from scattering that magic around her, she used the green-garnet magical aid to reflect it back onto her own body.

Was that it?

“My Sensory Deprivation manifested when I was three. I no longer remember the details… I had a petty quarrel with a friend and took away her sight for several minutes.”

“I see. What happened to that friend?”

“She became afraid of me and left. I haven’t seen her since. Losing her sight must have been deeply traumatic. It couldn’t be helped.”

One often heard about incidents of this kind in this world.

Before developing self-awareness, a child would emotionally lose control of their magic and cause a disturbance. However, uncontrolled magic rarely produced a strong effect, so it usually didn’t become a major incident.

“What I truly wanted… was to learn healing magic like the saintesses from mythology. I never wanted magic that blinded my friends or took away their hearing.”

“Is that why you chose alchemy?”

“Yes. With alchemy, even someone like me can heal another person. I can make someone who’s crying smile. That’s what I thought… but I lack ability in many ways. I truly wanted to study medicine, yet the teacher Father summoned was an agricultural alchemist. At home, I did nothing but improve varieties of sugar beet.”

Garnet lowered her head.

“To heal people… Heh. It’s a strange dream for the daughter of a yakuza, isn’t it?”

“No. I think it’s a wonderful goal. It somehow suits you. You can pursue it as much as you like from now on. If there’s anything I can do to cooperate, tell me.”

At my words, Garnet smiled and bowed her head slightly.

Books about medical alchemy.

Perhaps I should begin collecting them actively. That would probably require infiltrating temple libraries.

Ah, yes. I understand.

Being willing to pirate books illegally to achieve my objective isn’t a good thing.

But in this world, the information in books was generally kept secret. There was far too much knowledge that couldn’t be obtained no matter how much money one offered.

Regrettably.

“—I see. So your enormous collection, Leading Candidate, was created by sneaking into various places and making copies… Heh heh. You were quite a bad person.”

“Yes, yes. Apparently, I’m actually an executive in a yakuza organization.”

“Ah, that’s right. Heh heh heh…”

As we talked about various things, I felt the wall around her heart grow thinner than before. I’d spent a long time wondering whether I should ask about the pendant, but I was glad I’d taken the plunge and spoken.

“Besides, I think your magic can be used kindly.”

After that, Garnet and I discussed the insights I’d gained while observing Medis’s treatment and the various problems that would need to be solved to improve medical techniques further. We ended up talking until morning, but I thought it had been an extremely meaningful time.

She wanted to spend her life healing people.

I hoped that wonderful dream of hers would come true.

◆　　　◆　　　◆

Several days passed after I asked Kiko to investigate.

Her shadow magic was extremely well suited to covert operations. She could store objects inside shadows, enter them to conceal her presence, and move while changing their shape. Since it created unnatural shadows, using it during the day posed difficulties. After sunset, however, its usefulness was outstanding.

That said, she’d only become capable of properly using her magic very recently.

Kiko had apparently considered shadow magic a failure until now.

All it could do was alter the shape of a shadow. Furthermore, shadows were generally maintained at a fixed density automatically.

In other words—

Regardless of her wishes, her magic was consumed whenever she stood beneath the sun.

That was the greatest cause of her deficiency in magical elements.

However, by applying the principles of my subspace magic, Kiko’s magic changed.

She added “depth” in a direction separate from three-dimensional space to a shadow under her control. This allowed her to use storage magic called Shadow Storage and movement magic through shadows known as Shadow Walk.

I also made her a black cloak magic tool that blocked light. If dense shadow always surrounded her body, I believed that maintaining it would require less mana.

The idea proved completely correct.

Well, when she carried a great scythe while wearing a black cloak… she looked entirely like the Grim Reaper.

“—Crow. I will share the results of my intelligence gathering.”

Kiko returned from her investigation and knelt on one knee inside Home.

I operated the knight doll and stood before her.

“I report. The Sapojira Family, which oversees the Cineraria Family’s Silva branch… in other words, the branch head’s faction, is conducting activities that negatively affect the entire Silva Frontier Territory.”

“As I suspected. Specifically?”

“They apparently control the frontier territory’s new industry from the shadows… a cotton-goods factory.”

A cotton-goods factory?

That alone didn’t sound as though they were doing anything especially wrong. Puzzled, I prompted Kiko to continue.

“On the surface, the factory is successful. The residents of Dasilva gained a new place to work besides the traditional kobold-fur industry. Trade in cotton goods has begun producing profits, and the factory pays its taxes properly, so the entire territory is prospering.”

“I see. And the problem?”

“Miasma released by the factory pollutes the city’s air, and the number of sick people is increasing. Also, orphans are apparently being forced to work under terrible conditions… The lord’s side is demanding improvements, but the Sapojira Family refuses to listen.”

I see.

Environmental pollution and child labor.

The Azukai Empire currently had no laws regulating either. Therefore, the knights couldn’t openly arrest the Sapojira Family, and because tax revenue had increased, the lord found it difficult to object.

Profiting by exploiting a hole in the law was an extremely yakuza-like method.

However—

“Understood. Let’s destroy it.”

“Is that all right? Apparently, the tribute paid to the Family has increased too.”

“Yes. Though we’re still at the stage where we require a detailed investigation. We don’t have all the information, so I’ll decide how to destroy it afterward.”

I had no intention of posing as a champion of justice.

I was already a respectable yakuza.

Even so, no matter how I considered it, something I disliked was something I disliked.

“If a business can’t survive without working children mercilessly, we can destroy it. I’ll behave selfishly, as a proper yakuza should.”

Of course, if there were a better method, I thought we could preserve the industry itself. This wasn’t anything as proper as righteous indignation. It was merely my selfishness.

Anyone with objections could direct them to the boss who’d made me a candidate for the next underboss.

Now then, the day after that conversation with Kiko, I handed a letter to Judith, the lord’s daughter, when she visited my room.

“Lord Crow, what is this letter?”

“I’d like you to deliver it to the Cineraria Family headquarters in Flumen. Naturally, the knights may examine the contents. In fact, I believe this will proceed more smoothly if I coordinate with the lord’s side, so I would prefer that you read it actively.”

Its contents were extremely concise.

The Sapojira Family may be conducting activities contrary to honor.

In fulfillment of the duties and authority of Crow Amaryllis, leading candidate for the next underboss, I shall investigate the matter in detail and administer an appropriate punishment. Because the situation is urgent, I shall act without awaiting headquarters’ reply. Grant your retroactive approval.

In other words, it was a unilateral notification that said, “I’m going to act on my own, so please handle the rest.”

Judging from their conversations, the child labor wasn’t the only issue. There appeared to be a possibility that they were doing things far darker…

Kiko was investigating the facts now, but I couldn’t overlook this.

I thought the situation had become extremely serious.